Ann Reardon

How to make chocolate at home bean to bar

how to make chocolate at home
Bean to bar chocolate is taking the world by storm. Follow the video to see how you can make your very own chocolate at home. The best part is that you can control just how much sugar to add as well as any extra ingredients.

Just as there are many different flavours of coffee as a result of the beans used, there are also loads of variations with cocoa beans. However it’s likely that most of the chocolate you’ve ever tasted will have come from only one variety. Bean to bar chocolate makers use different beans from all over the world to help independent growers and to bring those flavours to you. If you want to make your own chocolate then you can also contact a bean to bar chocolate maker to source a small quantity of cocoa beans and cocoa butter. There’s a growing list of bean to bar chocolate makers here. If you’re thinking about ordering some beans, then as a general rule 115g (4.06 ounces) of beans produces around 90g (3.17 ounces) of roasted, peeled cocoa nibs.

And even if you can’t get hold of cocoa beans, you can swap out the nibs in each recipe for half cocoa butter and half cocoa powder by weight.

bean to bar chocolate ann reardon
STEP 1. ROASTING
Spread the beans out in a single layer onto a lined baking tray. Take out any shriveled beans
Preheat your oven to 129ºF (54ºC) , put the beans in and turn the heat up to 250ºF (121ºC) for 15 minutes.
Turn the oven back down to 122ºF (50ºC) and open the oven door for a minute to let it rapidly cool down. Then close the oven door and leave the beans in there for another 12 minutes.

Take them out of the oven and let them cool for 5 minutes.

STEP 2: PEEL THE BEANS
The easiest way to do this for small quantities is by hand. Gently twist the bean and then remove the shell.

The other way you can do this is to crush the beans using a rolling pin. Tip them onto a bowl and gently blow with a hairdryer to remove the lighter shells.

cocoa beans where to buy

STEP 3. MILL THE BEANS Use a blender or food processor to make the beans as fine as you can.

STEP 4. GRIND THE BEANS
You can use a mortar and pestle or grind the beans as finely as you can. If you want them really fine like in commercial chocolate then you’ll need to buy a chocolate melanger, but they are not cheap.

Warm the mixture to melt the cocoa butter in it and continue to grind. If you are using a mortar and pestle you will need to add the additional melted cocoa butter now.

band to bar chocolate recipe ann reardon

STEP 5. TEMPER the chocolate. Make sure you temper your chocolate before you mold it or it will not set at room temperature. You will find my video on tempering chocolate at home here.

bean to bar chocolate recipes

how to make chocolate video ann reardon

Dark Chocolate Recipe Makes two 75g (2.65 ounces) bars
90g (3.17 ounces) cocoa nibs
40g (1.41 ounces) or 1/3 cup (icing) powdered sugar
26g (0.92 ounces) cocoa butter – optional but needed if you are making by hand without a chocolate melanger

milk chocolate recipe ann reardon

Milk Chocolate Recipe (similar to the proportions in a bar of Cadburys milk chocolate)
46g (1.62 ounces) or 3 Tbsp plus 2 tsp sugar
16g (0.56 ounces) or 1 Tbsp plus 1 tsp cocoa butter
14g (0.49 ounces) or 1 Tbsp plus 2 tsp cocoa nibs
24g (0.85 ounces) or 1/4 cup milk powder
Additional 8g (0.28 ounces) or 2 tsp cocoa butter if making by hand without a chocolate melanger

home made chocolate how to cook that

80% Dark Chocolate Recipe (similar to proportions in a Lindt 80% dark chocolate bar)
35g (1.23 ounces) or 1/4 cup cocoa nibs
30g (1.06 ounces) or 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
25g (0.88 ounces) or 2 Tbsp cocoa butter
13g (0.46 ounces) or 1 Tbsp sugar
2g (0.07 ounces) or 1/2 tsp vanilla seeds scraped form a vanilla pod

by Ann Reardon How To Cook That

2015

My Cookbook

ann reardon crazy sweet creations cookbook
Stores that sell my book listed by country: http://bit.ly/ARcookbook
All recipe quantities in the book are in grams, ounces and cups.

114 Comments View Comments

  1. Rating: 5

    Hi Ann, I was wondering how long you would recommend conching the beans in a melanger? I generally do it for 3 days, but I would like to know what you recommend. Thank you!

  2. Rating: 5

    Hello, I live in New York and am a fan of your culinary work here! I did have a question that I need answered in us measurements. I am using a melanger for my chocolate making venture; however, I wanted to know in us measurements how much cocoa powder to use in ratio to cocoa butter alongside of sugar and milk powder to use if I plan on making a two pound capacity of chocolate?
    Please and thank you so very much!
    I figured to ask someone who is professional and knows their way around chocolate as I am a bit of a novice that desperately needs your advice!
    I have searched high and low on google for recipe variations for this specific method with cocoa powder and cocoa butter in a melanger…
    Sadly all I keep getting are recipes for compound chocolate or people making fake chocolate from coconut oil.
    Thank you so very much! I really appreciate your advice and your informative videos!

    • Rating: 3.5

      It’s tricky to sub cocoa powder for nibs because some nibs have more butter and some have less. For a quick answer, try assuming a nib is 1/2 cocoa and half cocoa butter. Melt the butter and add to melanger with about 1/3 of your dry ingredients, then slowly add the rest. If the texture is too thick, melt and add a little extra cocoa butter to your melanger. It’s pretty forgiving. Write out your own recipe and adjust the each ingredient up or down till you find the proportions that you like best.

  3. Rating: 5

    hi this is so cool

  4. Rating: 5

    For the milk chocolate I am following all of the measurements how much freeze dryed cocoa butter do I need to temper it?

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